Thaindian News

New Delhi, Sep 8 (IANS) Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal Thursday expressed concern over the loss of time for business in parliament due to disruptions and said the government intended to pass several bills to tackle the menace of corruption.

Talking to reporters here at the conclusion of the monsoon session, Bansal said he was “sorry to point out” that time was lost due to disruptions from the start of the session.

He said that question hour could not be taken up in Lok Sabha on 16 of the 26 days sittings were held and the house lost 61 hours due to disruptions.

He said the government intended to pass bills relating to the human resource ministry in the Rajya Sabha Wednesday but could not do so, adding it had led to a situation where a large number of students of a top institute will not get their degrees they had been waiting for.

“The ministry may have to think of an ordinance,” Bansal said.

He said of the bills intended to be passed by the government at the start of the session, “17 bills could not be taken up for consideration and passing because of the situation in the house”.

The government always wants parliament to funciton as it was answerable to people through the two houses, Bansal noted.

The minister said the Lok Sabha spent about 24 hours in discussing legislation while the Rajya Sabha spent about 16 hours.

Discussions held in the two houses were mainly on the issue of corruption and the government was taking several initiatives to tackle the problem, he said.

Listing out legislative measures to tackle corruption, the minister said apart from the Lokpal bill, the government was working on public procurement bill, benami transactions bill, land acquisition bill, judicial accountability bill and amendments relating to cooperatives.

Noting that the scheme for generating unique identity numbers for all Indians will help tackle irregularities in government schemes, Bansal also said steps had been taken to check dicretionary powers of ministers and expand opportunities in higher education.

The minister said 12 bills (11 in Lok Sabha and 3 in Rajya Sabha) were introduced during the session that began Aug 1. The Lok Sabha passed 13 bills and the Rajya Sabha nine.